‘A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter’ by Caleb Larsen

A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter is a simple black box which looks like a 3D version of Malevich’s Black Square and which has the only task and meaning of existence – to perpetually sell itself at an auction. The author of this interesting and unusual artwork is an American artist Caleb Larsen.

By the use of Internet, the box connects to eBay every ten minutes and checks if it has been bought. If so, it immediately starts a new auction and sets its last price as an opening bid. Here it should be said that the artwork goes with the long list of terms. Following them, if someone buys the box, the current owner is required to ship it to the new one. The new owner must then provide the box with Internet connection and the cycle repeats. All abovementioned turn A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter into an absolutely pointless purchase and make the cube’s existence absurd. But just this absurdity forms the image of the artwork.

The price of the box should grow over time and its final price is just the main intrigue of the project. Generally, the Larsen’s work raises many questions about artworks’ value in our society and conventional nature of this value.

A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter appeared on eBay in 2009 and its current price is 7,500 $.